#TheNerdCommander

[cthulhubrain]

artfight attack for TheNerdCommander ( @thenerdcommander ) on artfight. His character Danaelwen.

i just think she's neat ouo

started with pencil, watercolours, pencil crayons, lots of regret and frustration at my lack of colour knowledge. then went in to fiddle with lighting levels in photoshop, and also add my blog's name. I'm still not completely satisfied with it, buuuuuut I think that's the perfectionism and impatience talking.

[freckle-works]

Completely forgot to stay on top of posting my artfight attacks and revenges so prepare for all of those all at once lmao

Characters belong to:

~willowfern

~thenerdcommander

~crayy

~bluemoon_drawz

~leptirknife

~ghostwyrm

[criticalrolo]

Since people are sharing their DnD characters, I gotta share this one I haven't gotten to play yet but have sitting in wait. He's a fallen aasimar grave cleric of "Selune" who has a very unhealthy obsession with bones. "Selune" in quotations because it's really just an archfey that impersonated his angel guide and told him to do Questionable Things until he fell, then said "It's free real estate" and started impersonating a literal god just to antagonize him and the people around him for lols

This is FANTASTIC our game has been dealing with a Selune impersonator too!! She tried to get our paladin on board but when that failed she killed one of our Selune clerics, like this:

[thenerdcommanderart]

I did a meme

[natsora]

*hugs you real tight* would you please send this to the first 10 people in your dash? Make sure someone gets a hug today and stay safe.

Hugs you right back! Take care of yourself!

[starlitetumblz]

And a very Merry Christmassss to me. ^w^ @thenerdcommander surprised me with her talented skillz with this lovely rendering of my Artie Boi! So happy!!!!

[thunderheadfred]

Kallo in 1A?

someone please kiss this stupid salarian

[lonicera-caprifolium]

You always bless us with the best art so now I bless you and gift you with a small Jaal.  ^u^  I really hope you like him, because you deserve only the best things.

He is absolutely adorable, thank you so much!! You are a complete and total sweetheart. A whole cake.

[cactuarkitty]

🏆 This is the Amazing Person Award 🏆 ✨💛 Once you are given this award you are supposed to paste it in the ask of eight different people, who, in your opinion, deserve it. If you break the chain nothing will happen, but it is sweet to know someone thinks you're amazing inside and out 💛✨

Thank you! :)

[0ccuria]

19 and 33 for Fyros, 12 and 45 for Arells, 43 for Kar, and 42 for Ryessa (sorry if there are too many here ^u^ Feel free to skip some if you'd like. I hope your day starts getting better)

Listen, you could send me the whole damn thing and I’d answer every question lol. There’s never a thing as too much with me. So thank you!

Send me some OC Questions?

FYROS:

19. What were your character’s deepest disillusions? In life? What are they now?

This is pretty much his whole character ark, honestly. There’s been a lot of disillusions in his life, but the biggest one being the slave/crime ring that he got caught up in. Later on it would just boil down to romantic disillusions.

33. Do they drink? Take drugs? What about their health?

He doesn’t drink on his own, but will rarely do it in company. As for drugs, he only smokes normal cigarettes.

When he partnered up with Kashia, he was malnourished, had hardly any muscle mass, and was just a total wreck. Now he’s pretty healthy and strong. He’s trained extensively and kept up a strict diet regimen so he doesn’t fall back into the state that he was in.

ARELLS:

12. How does their education and intelligence – or lack thereof - reflect in their speech pattern, vocabulary, and pronunciations?

Quite a lot. I’ve mentioned before that he has never had any proper education or a very nurturing environment. He’s had to fend for himself in that area.

It’s hard to describe other than “tough guy from boston” so I’ll just take an excerpt from a draft I had:

"Yeh? None’ya fuckin' business. Ya ain't gotta get wit tha technicalities just cause I patched ya scaly ass up." He waved Fyros off, "Pssh. Ya ain't need'a know 'bout me. Just keep me here 'til ya find some bare ass hell hole ta throw me in..."

45. Is your character pragmatic? Think first? Responsible? All action? A visionary? Passionate? Quixotic?

Oh he definitely doesn’t think first, just wings it. He can get very passionate about things, negatively or positively. Mostly negatively. That’s probably one of his biggest flaws honestly.

KAR:

43. Does your character have any secrets? If so, are they holding them back?

Ahh... it’s probably best that his secrets don’t come to light lol (unless you want to be really grossed or creeped out). But this was one of the main reasons he was exiled.

RYESSA:

42. What does your character want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively? What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?

She just wants her own independence. To be loved and needed. She has a very strong need to be considered helpful. Ry basically sacrificed her career and future by joining the crew in order to obtain these things, because she wasn’t going to find them where she currently was.

[yes-this-is-sam]

4, 5, 6, and 9 for Jirr and Ceti, 1, 2, and 6 for Risi and Ragar, and 1, 2, 5, and 10 for my homeboys OPI and Metok.

AHHH OK THERES A LOT HERE. HOW TO ORGANISE?

1) a trait they have too much of  (ex. too much pride = arrogance)

- Risi has WAY too much pride. But it’s a false pride bred into her during her Exhaltation. She definitely has a bit of her own that is simply her but the Kett are blooded and trained into a pride that is twisted and unhealthy.

- Ragar has mellowed out of a lot of things with age and experience. Before I’d say he had too much anger and maybe pride as well. Now though… I’d say he has too much guilt. He handles it well though. As well as an old man can. 

- OPI has, not necessarily his fault, but he has way too much aggression xD 

- Shit… Metok? I’d say he’s got way too much cunning. Not necessarily a bad thing but he doesn’t have much in the way of morals to temper what he does with it. 

2) a trait they don’t have enough of (ex. too little pride = insecurity)

- Risi’s is tough. It’s more like she doesn’t have enough personality? She has a lot, not saying she doesn’t. But it’s all… k e t t. It isn’t her, a lot of it. Part of her journey is picking and choosing the pieces she can part with and claim, and building new pieces to replace the spots left behind so she can reclaim herself as a person, even if she can’t fix how she looks. 

- To be honest, Ragar is kinda out of motivation. He’s tired. Of course there are DEFINITELY things that will GET him motivated. Don’t you dare fuck with Ceti or Sam… but for the most part he’s content to just putter around his garage and let things be the way they are.

- OPI does not have enough compassion. He has an excessive amount of loyalty to Sam that sort of builds a bit of compassion into his personality matrix? But the second you go outside anyone necessary to her survival or personality, you’re fucked if you’re relying on him. 

- I’m gonna drag this answer right back from the answer in 1. Metok does not have enough morals. He’s insanely smart, fast, cunning, logical, devious… but the only thing controlling what he uses that on is his desire to not get noticed by law enforcement and Vitetoria’s nagging. xD He lacks empathy. Not entirely, there’s a smidge in there somewhere. He isn’t evil… he’s just a lot like a machine. 

4) a trait they’re ashamed of

- Alright for Jirr… that’s a hard one. I think he’s ashamed of his fear of Clan Ganar’s judgement. Moreso the fact that it affected who he allowed himself to be as a father. He’s ALWAYS wanted to be a dad but once he had living children, he became so obsessed with them not carrying or being endangered by his stigma that he barely, if ever, saw them and made them keep their ties to him secret. And that hurt him AND them, and he knows it.

- Ceti is ashamed of being ashamed of being Batarian. Lord that’s a sentence. From a young age she was schooled to keep her mouth shut and keep to herself because no one wanted to hear what she had to say and it was ENTIRELY because of her race. She was watched even as a child as if she would steal everything not bolted down or try to shank someone. It makes her seriously angry any time she catches herself falling back into the “head down and eyes lower” mentality instead of flaunting her race and going “Yeah and I still have a better degree from a SALARIAN University and less of a criminal record than you do!” 

5) a trait they’re not ashamed of (but maybe should be)

- Jirr should PROBABLY be ashamed of how much of a flirt and manwhore he is, but considering how very rarely he actually gets any and how completely devoid of caring and affection his life has been, I doubt anyone will hold it against him. 

- Ceti… shit. I guess maybe… This one is hard. It’s not like she has any vices or anything. Maybe of how angry she tends to be but she’s got good damn reason for it and it isn’t like she takes it out on anyone really, aside from some snide comments and casual insults but… seriously, it’s a mercenary group. They ALL do that.

- OPI has SO MANY things he should be ashamed of…. and half of them are programmed in so they aren’t really his fault. Like his tendencies towards larceny, assault, murder, sarcasm. Just… to start the list. However he was NOT programmed with shame and never decided it was worth learning xD

- Metok!!! Totally shameless. He is ashamed of NOTHING. Everything has its own peculiar logic and is necessary. However. He probably SHOULD be ashamed of his blatant disregard for his teammates nerves when they’ve repeatedly asked him to WARN THEM before he blows shit up without any prior planning. 

6) a bad habit

- Risi can sometimes wind up using her Exhaltation and lack of memory as a crutch or excuse. Something Sam, and definitely OPI, do their level best not to let her get away with and try to push her past. 

- Ragar has a bad habit of going “I’ve earned this because of my past transgressions” even though the people doing shit have nothing to do with them. The only time he doesn’t is if it affects Ceti too. Then he teaches her “Don’t you dare take this.”

- Jirr’s is similar to Ragar’s. Which is probably a big reason why the two old men of the team get along so well. Jirr takes the worst abuse imaginable because he knows he can survive it and also because a part of him can’t shake the “Maybe this is what I deserve because it’s all I’ve ever been told I’m good for” bullshit. 

- Ceti ALWAYS forgets to sleep, eat, and drink. She doesn’t allow contaminants in her lab so she never has small snacks or drinks nearby and she’ll get so enthralled and focused on her plants that days could pass before she realises. Unless massive stomach cramps and fainting from exhaustion happen sooner than that. Luckily Ragar and Sam, and likely Faelon, nag her. 

9) a reason (or excuse) they haven’t improved on any of the above

- It’s been 1400 years and he’s doing just fine, right? Why fix something that isn’t broken? (Astra, that’s why. He finally gets his act together and tries to stand up for himself once she gives him a couple kicks in the ass, but this hasn’t happened yet anywhere but messages so the answer is valid regardless.)

- Ceti is trying her hardest to reclaim what it means to be Batarian. She stands a far better chance of doing that in Andromeda than the Milky Way however. To make everyone step back and re-evaluate their worth, including her own species. Until then… she fully believes that she has every right to not change how bitchy she can be because the people annoying her aren’t changing how annoying THEY are. xD It’s all their fault. 

10) a way that they are improving on any of the above!

- Ah… heh. They aren’t. They don’t feel that they need to. 

[criticalrolo]

That last person who submitted their two nat ones and I have opposite dice energy and I laughed so hard I had to share.

—

This is fantastic good for YOU!

submitted by @thenerdcommander

[blighted-elf]

*hugs you real tight* would you please send this to the first 10 people in your dash? Make sure someone gets a hug today and stay safe.

🥺💖

[yourdragonageocs]

She’s really cute! Love her expressions! Great job!

Inquisitor Minaya Lavellan

[canarydraws]

Alrighty y’all second place prize is the super sweet and lovely @thenerdcommander’s tiefling college of swords bard. He was so much fun to draw I love tieflings 💙

[thunderheadfred]

@thenerdcommander replied to your post “(None of this has a point and really it belongs in a private journal...”

This likely isn't the time or place, but can I make a suggestion? Have you considered getting a small group of friends or other artists to critique your work before posting it? Like beta readers, except for art. Ones you trust and know will tell you if they see areas they can help you improve in. It might not make everything okay but if you think it might help even a little bit it could be worth an attempt. Don't give up entirely just yet.

I know my tumblr posts sound pretty grim and doom and gloomy (I mean, I straight up turned into a severe tropical storm at about 10pm last night) but I don’t want to give up on drawing either, like, at all. I just needed to tie my bad thoughts to the railroad tracks for a minute...

this is actually a great idea - a small critique group is a thing I’ve thought about hosting - I know other folks have done writer’s circles like that and whatnot, but I’ve never felt comfortable enough to join (or start my own) because I didn’t want to overstep or... I don’t know?

I guess my biggest concern is getting overwhelmed. I already contribute so little and have such a Dumb Guilt Complex that I would be paranoid about having too many people/projects to adequately spread out the attention, or people feeling left out or dog-piled, especially if I’m moderating. I wouldn’t want any kind of critique space to be just for my work, (unless I’ve got a friendly beta reader helping me out) but a reciprocal circle where people can come for honest, helpful, constructive feedback on their own stuff too. I think I’m a pretty decent constructive-comment giver, but it’s exhausting, especially when depression is running rampant. So I’d worry about burnout and feeling guilty a lot, because I don’t have as much to give as I’d like. blah blah blah I’m making it about me again. Point is, lots of creatives feel that way, and I wouldn’t want anybody’s feelings getting hurt. Artist egos are perilously fragile things, but I honestly believe that given the right circumstances some careful, well-intentioned critique can be infinitely more helpful than enabling praise, if that makes sense?

I dunno gughaogna;olgn. this all sounds exhausting right now so I need to focus on my own garbage first obviously, bleh. but I genuinely think it’s a great idea and I’m going to consider logistics some more. I think a discord server would suit this well - real-time talk (with voice options for those REALLY intense discussions haha) and the ability to share text/images etc. Limited to a small group of people or else divided into rooms by interest/skill/whatever (not meant to be exclusive, it’s just hard to critique on a large scale or with wildly differing skill sets and ability levels) and I have no idea how that would pan out. I know @autodiscothings runs a similar thing to this for writing - I should probably pick her brain some

tl;dr I’d probably call my friendly critique server The Circle Jerks so that’s your first sign that I should never be put in charge of anything, ever, hahaha